The U.S. dollar had a fairly good session on Friday, scoring gains against most major currencies, despite starting off on a sluggish note.

Economic data out of the U.S. was not any significantly encouraging, but then, economic reports from China and Eurozone were somewhat downbeat as well, and this tilted the scale in favour of the greenback.

Also, comments from White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow that the U.S. and China are making "fantastic" progress in their trade negotiations, supported the greenback.

The dollar index rose to 96.55 before easing slightly to 96.50, still up by about 0.25% from previous close.

Against the Japanese Yen, the dollar gained over 0.5%, with a unit fetching 111.98 yen. Earlier, the yen had weakened to 112.07 after opening at 111.38 a dollar.

Disappointing Canadian fourth quarter GDP data resulted in the Loonie falling by over 0.9% against the dollar.

The Euro was trading a $1.1367, while the British Pound Sterling was down at $1.1320, declining from $1.3261.

In economic news from Europe, British manufacturing growth slowed to its weakest level in four months in February and Euro zone manufacturing activity went into reverse for the first time in over five years last month.

A report from the Federal Labor Agency showed Germany's unemployment declined in February, surpassing economists' consensus by a wide margin.

German retail sales grew at a stronger-than-expected pace in January, entirely reversing a steep decline in the previous month.

In the U.S., consumer sentiment rebounded by much less than initially estimated in the month of February, revised data from the University of Michigan revealed on Friday.

The report said the consumer sentiment index for February was downwardly revised to 93.8 from a preliminary reading of 95.5.

The index is still well above the final January reading of 91.2, but the revised reading came in well below analyst estimates of 95.7.

A report from the Institute for Supply Management said growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector slowed by much more than anticipated in the month of February, with the ISM Purchasing Managers Index dropping to 54.2 in the month. In January, the index had climbed to 56.6. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 55.5.